Conveying apparatus



Oct. 6, 1970 RQWLANDS EI'AL 3,532,388

' commune armwrus Filed m 51, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Oct. 6, 1970 T.ROWLANDS ETAL 3,532,333

couvnnna Arrm'rus Filed llay 31, 1968 4 sheets-sheet z Oct. 6, 1970 I1-. ROWLANDS EI'AL 3,532,388

CONVEYING APPARATUS I Filed m :51. 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet s Oct. 6, 1970 T,ow s EI'AL 3,532,388

CONVEYING 'AYPARATUS Filed May 31, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet *1 United StatesPatent US. Cl. 302-2 15 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An overheadconveyor to carry a stream of cigarettes from one cigarette-makingmachine to another whilst leaving space for an operator to passunderneath, which comprises a series of tubes mounted on an endless bandand into which tubes the cigarettes are sucked at one end and from whichthey are blown at the other end.

This invention relates to conveying apparatus for moving streams ofcigarettes and similar rod-like articles in a cigarette factory.

In some methods of manufacture, cigarettes are produced bycigarette-making machines at a rate of several thousand per minute in acontinuous moving stream and are fed to a tray-filling machine whichoperates to feed them into trays in which they are then transported to apacking room where they are put into packets. The trayfilling machinesmay operate at about twice the speed of the cigarette making machine andit is therefore desirable to connect two cigarette makers to a singletray filler.

However, there are cerain limitations on the way in which machinery canbe arranged in a factory. For example, regard has to be paid to the needfor the number of machine operators to be reduced to a minimum as aresult of which it is usual for one operator to tend more than onemachine. In this case it is necessary to ensure that the operator canhave free access from one machine to another. For the sake ofconvenience and efficiency it is also desirable to arranged the machinesface-to-face in pairs, with the result that the output end of onemachine is remote from the tray filler to which it is connected. Thus toenable one operator to tend both machines the cigarettes from thatmachine must be raised above the space between the machines on their wayto the tray filler to enable him to pass underneath.

It is an object of this invention to provide improved conveyingapparatus for use in transporting cigarettes and similar rod-likearticles in a cigarette factory which can be employed to carry a streamof cigarettes from one of a pair of cigarette-making machines above thespace between them.

According to the present invention there is provided conveying apparatusfor cigarettes and similar rod-like articles which comprises an endlessconveyor carrying a series of parallelly aligned tubular containers forthe articles which containers are adapted to hold the articles againstmovement in any direction transverse to their axes, wherein the conveyoris capable of flexing about the axes of the articles, and comprisingmeans to load the articles into the containers on the conveyor and meansto off-load them therefrom. Preferably also the loading means includessuction means to draw the articles into the tubes and the off-loadingmeans includes air pressure means to blow the articles out of the tubes.To assist in this the tubes can be funnel-shaped at one end to guide thearticles in and can be partially closed 3,532,388 Patented Oct. 6, 1970ice at the other end to facilitate the operation of the suction meansand the air pressure means.

In a preferred embodiment the conveyor is supported on a frame havingthe form of an arch to have a forward run and a return run extendingalong the arch, the containers holding the articles on the conveyorduring upward and downward travel. In addition the conveyor can bearranged to turn the articles about an axis transverse to the directionof movement but also about an axis extending in that direction.

The invention also extends to a pair of cigarette making machinesarranged to face each other so that the output end of one of themachines is remote from that of the other and is connected thereto byconveying apparatus according to the invention arranged to carry thecigarettes from that output end above the space between the machineswith clearance for an operator to pass below.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example,with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of two cigarette-making machines connected to atray filling machine.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged elevation of a part of FIG. 1 in the direction ofthe arrow A,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevation of a part of FIG. 1 in the direction ofthe arrow B,

FIG. 4 is a still more enlarged view of a part of FIG. 3,

FIG. 5 is a plan view of FIG. 4, and

FIG. 6 is a still more enlarged view of a part of FIG. 2.

Referring to the drawings, two cigarette-making machines 1 and 2 areconnected to a tray filler 3 by means of a conveying apparatus indicatedgenerally at 4. The cigarettes flow oif the machines in continuousstreams, 5 and 6 respectively, moving transversely to their length, andthe conveying apparatus 4 operates to combine the two flows into acommon stream 7 of greater depth which is fed into the tray filler 3.The tray filler 3 operates to pack the cigarettes into trays in whichthey are transported to a packing room.

As can be seen most clearly in FIG. 2, the conveying apparatus 4 has thegeneral form of an arch extending over the space between the twocigarette makers and its purpose is to convey the cigarettes from onemachine to the other whilst at the same time leaving a clear space foran operator to move to and fro between the machines. It will be notedfrom FIG. 1 that the machines are arranged, as it were, face to facewith their outputs opposite each other so that both are more or less ona common line with the input side of the tray filler 3.

The conveying apparatus consists of three parts, which comprise aloading station 8, an endless conveyor 9 and a discharge station 10. Theconveyor 9 comprises a continuous series of tubes 11, each of which isadapted to receive one cigarette and has a funnel shaped portion 12 tofacilitate loading of the tube, and an aperture 13 (see FIG. 5) in its.opposite end to allow the cigarette to be driven into and out of thetube by air pressure means, and a chain 14 which runs over sprockets 15mounted on an arch-shaped framework 16 and carries the tubes 11. Thetubes 11 are mounted on the chain 14 in pairs by means of flangedbrackets each of which has a base portion 28 on which a pair of tubes 11is mounted by, for example, welding, and an upstanding flange 29 whichis apertured to receive two chain rollers thereby to constitute a linkof the chain (FIGS. 4 and 5). The loading station 8 is positioned sothat the mouths of the tube 11 are in horizontal registration withcigarettes in the stream 5 which are carried out of the machine 1 on aconveyor 17. As the cigarettes move along the conveyor 17 into theregion of the station 8 a guide 18 starts to move them endwise intothetubes 11 on the conveyor 9 and at the same time, suction is applied froma suction chamber 19 through the apertures 13 in the ends of the tubes11 to complete this movement. A cowling 20 extends from the suctionchamber 19 over the tubes 11 to assist the action of the suction chamber19. The tubes 11 are mounted on the conveyor chain 9 in pairs on flanges21 each of which is secured to a link of the chain.

The off-loading station 10 comprises a fluted drum 22 mounted in axialalignment with one of the sprockets around which the conveyor 9 moves atthe end point of the conveying apparatus. The flutes on the drum 22 arearranged in pairs to register with the tubes as they move around thesprocket 15 and the flanges 21 move somewhat apart. On the other side ofthe conveyor 9 from the drum 22 an air blower 23 (FIG. 3) is situated toblow the cigarettes out of the tubes 11 into flutes on the drum 22, acurved guide 24 guides the cigarettes from the drum 22 on to a transferconveyor 25 from which they are run on to a conveyor carrying the streamof cigarettes 6 from the second cigarette maker 2 to make up the inputstream 7 to the tray filler 3.

As the conveyor 9 moves from the loading station 8 it is graduallytwisted by means of a channel-shaped guide 26 which accommodates thechain 14 and bears on the edges of the base portions 28 of thetube-supporting brackets, to turn the cigarettes in the tubes 11 throughninety degrees so that they will be in the proper position for feedingon to the tray filler 3. The return path of the conveyor 9 is alsotwisted by means of a guide 27 to reverse the twist introduced by theguide 26. The conveyor 6 carrying the cigarettes from the cigarettemaker 2 also turns them through a right angle, see FIG. 1.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patentis:

1. Conveying apparatus for conveying cigarettes and similar rod-likearticles along a path which comprises an endless conveyor carrying aseries of parallelly aligned tubular containers for the articles whichcontainers comprise a substantially imperforate side wall and areadapted to hold the articles against movement in any directiontransverse to their axes, said conveyor being capable of flexing aboutthe axes of the articles, and pneumatic means for controlling theinternal air pressure of said containers to draw the articles into thecontainers on the conveyor and to eject them therefrom at respectiveloading and off-loading stations along said path.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conveyor is capable oflimited flexing movement transverse to the axes of the articles.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the conveyor comprises a chainincluding a series of brackets each of which both supports at least onecontainer and is formed with a portion constituting a part of the chain.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the tubular containers arepartially closed at one end thereof to cooperate with said pneumaticmeans.

5. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the tubular containers arefunnel-shaped at one end to guide articles in at said loading station.

6. A pair of cigarette-making machines arranged to face each other inhorizontally spaced relationship, so that the output of one of themachines is remote from the output of the other, wherein conveyor meansis provided for conveying cigarettes away from each of said outputs inseparate streams and merging said streams, said conveyor meanscomprising conveyor apparatus as claimed in claim 1 for carrying thestream issuing from the output of said one machine to a point where saidstreams merge along a path which extends upwardly from said output anddownwardly to the point where said streams merge, whereby the spacebetween said machines is unobstructed.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said pneumatic meanscomprises suction means at the loading station adjacent one side of saidendless conveyor for successively creating a vacuum in each of saidcontainers through one end thereof to draw successive articles into eachof said containers through the opposite end thereof as said containerspass through said loading station.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein said pneumatic means furthercomprises air pressure means at the off-loading station adjacent oneside of said endless conveyor for successively creating an elevatedpressure in each of said containers through one end thereof to ejectarticles from each of said containers through the opposite end thereofas said containers pass through said off-loading station.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the vacuum means to load thearticles into the containers and the pressure means to off-load themtherefrom are horizontally spaced apart and wherein the conveyor has aforward reach to advance the articles from the on-loading to theoff-loading station, which reach extends upwardly from the on-loadingstation and downwardly to the offloading station, and a return reach toreturn the empty containers from the off-loading station to theon-loading station, which return reach extends upwardly from theoff-loading station and downwardly to the on-loading station.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the conveyor is supported ona frame having the form of an arch around which the forward and returnruns extend, the containers holding the articles on the conveyor duringupward and downward travel along said path.

11. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein means are provided to twistthe forward and return reaches of the conveyor substantially throughright angles in opposite senses along said path.

12. Apparatus according to claim 9 wherein the conveyor is arranged toturn the articles about an axis extending in the direction of movementalong said path.

13. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7 further comprising means for feedingarticles successively to said loading station in synchronization withsaid conveying apparatus whereby each of said articles is positionedadjacent one end of each of said containers prior to being drawn intosaid container.

14. Apparatus as claimed in claim 13 wherein said feeding meanscomprises guide means for initiating movement of said articles into saidcontainers prior to said suction means completing the drawing ofarticles into said containers.

15. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein said suction means comprisesa suction chamber and a cowling extending from the suction chamber overthe containers on said conveyor to assist the action of the suction chamher in creating a vacuum in said containers.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,934,378 4/1960 Gilbert 30 223,387,746 6/1968 Whipple 221-211 ANDRES H. NIELSEN, Primary Examiner US.Cl. X.R.

